In times of increasing competitive constraints and globalization, product life cycles and time for decisions become shorter for many companies. Furthermore, wrong management-decisions and late identified market-trends may have fatal consequences in rapidly evolving markets. For these reasons, management often monitors company, department, and market performance through metrics, to take appropriate real-time measures. Such measures are often provided in so-called dashboards, which may include graphical representations of business performance. Measures displayed in dashboards may include metrics, such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Metrics presented in dashboards typically are hard-coded interfaces specific to one or more metrics. To change, add, or remove metrics from a dashboard, each specific interface affected needs to be modified. Further, backend connections to data from which the metrics are generated may also need to be added to or changed. Such dashboards therefore are not nimble and fail to meet evolving market and business environment needs.